Rhett Preston Kirby

To my Family who may travel the unknown journey one day,

My name is Rhett Preston Kirby; this is my journey to recovery.

December 2019 2 days before the Christmas, I received a call from my

oncologist giving me the horrible news that I had cancer. Normal plasma

cells are found in the bone marrow; When one plasma cell becomes

cancerous and grows out of control it’s called Multiple Myeloma. Multiple

Myeloma is cancer of the plasma cells.

I’ve been happily married for 14 years. I have 4 children, 7 grandchildren,

1 great grandson, and I have been in remission for over 2 years!!!!! We

spoil our grandkids, we travel, we’re retired, we do what we want, and we

get up when we want to!!!! My wife and I are living our best lives right now!!!

When I got the call, I was on my way to play ping pong. I was so taken

back that I pulled over and the first person I told was my brother, and he

said to me “that it was not my time to go yet”. I went home to do the hardest

thing, talk with my wife. I told my wife and to my relief she told me of her

longtime girlfriend who had the same disease was in remission for close

to ten years with no reoccurrence of the disease. She became my hope

that I too will overcome this disease and will live through it to see the other

side of it. We reached out to Pam for all kinds of questions, she shared her

experience, & she gave us reassurances that everything was going to be

alright.

They initially put a port in my chest where for the next 30 days they

administered medications and gave me several blood transfusions. I

received chemo for 4 or 5 months prior to the transplant. They harvested

my own STEM cells, then I was given a huge amount of a powerful chemo

that basically put my immune system back to that of an infant. Over the

next year and a half, I received immunizations shots that brought my

immune system back to its adult status. They killed all the cancerous stem

cells, then they replaced my clean bone marrow cells back into me. For

weeks I went to the hospital daily to be monitored and given small amounts

of chemo to ensure they got all cancerous cells. During this time, I felt

extremely weak, I had no energy, light appetite. I developed neuropathy in

my feet, initially it was bad, but I took medication to bring it further under

control. To be honest, since I am taking a chemo pill as part of the

treatment plan, unfortunately it is a side effect of the chemo, but I am

managing it!!!

What I needed to conquer this disease and to make a full recovery was the

Lord and the complete and full support of my wife and my family. You must

have a support system with family that loves you in order to achieve

recovery.